Pete Bevacqua warns ACC did 'permanent damage' to relationship by campaigning against Notre Dame in College Football Playoff

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua made it clear Monday that the fallout from the College Football Playoff snub goes beyond disappointment. It’s fractured the school’s relationship with the ACC in a way he believes will have lasting consequences. 

Speaking on The Dan Patrick Show, Bevacqua said Monday that the conference’s decision to campaign publicly against Notre Dame throughout the final ranking debates created “permanent damage.”

Bevacqua emphasized that Notre Dame’s frustration is not with Miami, as the Hurricanes beat the Irish head-to-head and had every right to advocate for their own Playoff inclusion. Instead, he took issue with ACC leadership repeatedly comparing Notre Dame to Miami while lobbying the committee, despite the Irish being one of the conference’s most valuable partners outside football.

“I have tremendous respect for Miami, great team, great school,” Bevacqua said. “Their athletic director, Dan Radakovich, is a good friend. We were mystified by the actions of the conference, to attack their biggest business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports. I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say that they have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame.”

Bevacqua added that Notre Dame does not publicly tear down peer institutions, and he was stunned to find themselves singled out by a league it competes with, and financially supports, across nearly all sports.

“We didn’t appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami, not by Miami, but by the conference,” he continued. “People might disagree with us, but that’s just not something we choose to do and wouldn’t choose to do in the future.”

Bevacqua: ‘Everybody is just kind of confused and perplexed’

Alas, the Irish entered Conference Championship Weekend ranked No. 10 and sitting ahead of Miami, despite the Week 1 loss to the Hurricanes. When BYU lost in the Big 12 Championship Game, the buffer between the teams disappeared, allowing the committee to apply head-to-head and vault Miami into the final Playoff field. Notre Dame dropped to the first team out.

Bevacqua reiterated that nearly everyone in the sport, including seven-time national champion coach Nick Saban, believed Notre Dame was capable of winning the national title: “Everybody was saying we were one of a handful of teams that could win this whole thing, and now we have 0% chance,” he said. 

“Even Nick Saban said yesterday, ‘How is Notre Dame not in this?’ Everybody is just kind of confused and perplexed. We don’t have good answers for our student-athletes.”

For the Irish, the sting of missing the 12-team Playoff has been compounded by what they view as betrayal from a longstanding partner. As Bevacqua made clear, repairing that relationship won’t be simple, and it seems like it may influence how Notre Dame approaches conference affiliations moving forward.